Analysis: Warriors' small-ball 'lineup of death' no longer lethal

Wednesday

Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala and Draymond Green have shared 145 minutes of court time during the playoffs and are barely breaking even.

There was a time when the Golden State Warriors' so-called small ball lineup of death — featuring Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala and Draymond Green — was the most dominating five-man unit on the basketball court.

Since Durant signed with the Warriors in the summer of 2016, the "Hamptons Five" has outscored opponents by almost 20 net points per 100 possessions over 529 minutes during the regular season. During Golden State's run of back-to-back titles the lineup improved that scoring margin to almost 24 net points per 100 possessions in the playoffs, a freakishly high number that no team was able to overcome. In this year's playoffs, however, basketball's version of the Grim Reaper isn't nearly as lethal: Durant, Curry, Thompson, Iguodala and Green have shared 145 minutes of court time during the 2019 NBA playoffs and are barely breaking even.

The most glaring reason for the decline lies at the feet of Curry and Thompson, two sharpshooters who are 20 for 72 (28%) from behind the arc, which includes a woeful 5 for 20 (25%) on wide-open 3-point attempts during the series against the Houston Rockets. That's helped knock down the offensive rating of the "Hamptons Five" lineup from 121.1 during the 2017 and 2018 title runs to a much more manageable 113.7 in 2019. To be fair, an offensive rating that high would still rank in the NBA's Top 5 during the regular season, but that's only one of the problems facing the Warriors most feared lineup.

Defensively, Golden State's famous small-ball squad is hemorrhaging points to the tune of 112.4 per 100 possessions during the 2019 playoffs. That rate, if produced during the regular season, would put them ahead of just six teams in 2018-19. It's also a far cry from the defensive rating produced in 2017 (100.0) and 2018 (95.9). Give credit to the Rockets for using a small-ball lineup of their own to counter punch what the Warriors have to offer, especially PJ Tucker, who is the key to making that lineup so successful, but the Los Angeles Clippers managed to score 107.8 points per 100 possessions against this lineup in the first round, too, illustrating perhaps Golden State's best five-man unit isn't operating at peak capacity anymore.

Perhaps it's due to fatigue. Coach Steve Kerr is leaning on his best lineup more often against Houston than he has in previous series. Kerr has deployed the "Hamptons Five" for almost 26 minutes per game against the Rockets, more than three times as often as he did against the Los Angeles Clippers in the opening round (8.5 minutes per game) and more often than he used them during the 2017 (5 minutes per game) and 2018 (14.4 minutes per game) championship runs. They logged 52 minutes during the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers over the past two years combined.

The Warriors' death lineup was also known for running opponents ragged in transition, yet their steals per 100 possessions dropped from 12.2 in 2017 and 2018 combined to 7.4 in 2019 and their pace of play also declined from 107.6 to 101.8 possessions per 48 minutes. Compare that to Houston's pace of play for their so-called "South Beach Five" small-ball lineup (108.2) in this series and it is easy to see why the Rockets are having so much success against the Warriors when going small.

To complicate matters, the Warriors have to worry about Iguodala, who hyperextended his left knee in Monday night's loss and is "probable" for Game 5 against the Rockets Wednesday night. Knee issues would almost certainly slow him down but there is a silver lining: The remaining four players of the death lineup, when paired with any other Warriors player, have outscored opponents by 5.6 net points per 100 possessions this postseason.

"We went seven games with these guys last year, so this is not anything unusual," Kerr told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It's been an unbelievable run the last five years; we've had plenty of series go quickly, but we've had our share of adversity.

"We were down 3-1 a few years ago (in 2016 against Oklahoma City) and came back and won. We're used to it. This is all part of it. We're 2-2 and we have home-court advantage, so we're in a good spot. We just have to get back to work."

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